Special Pearlette
The Special Pearlette is a Japanese folding camera taking 4×6.5cm exposures on 127 film, made by Konishiroku (predecessor of Konica) in 1929. Description Despite its name, the Special Pearlette has nothing in common with the strut-folding Pearlette. It is a copy of the Roll Tenax by Goerz. The folding bed is not self-erecting, and the front standard needs to be manually pulled out. The camera has double extension bellows, focused by a worm-gear placed on the folding bed, on the photographer's right. (The same arrangement is found on the Nifcarette A by Nichidoku, another copy of the Roll Tenax issued the same year.) There is a brilliant finder attached to the lens standard. The back is hinged to the bottom and the advance key is at the top right, as seen by the photographer holding the camera vertically. The name SPECIAL PEARLETTE is embossed in the front leather. Commercial life The Special Pearlette was briefly announced in 1929. Date: Lewis, p.49, , item 1143, Fujishima, p.53 of no.10, Kameari, pp.2 and 7 of no.11, and chronology of the R. Konishi Rokuoh-sha website. One author has suggested that the camera bodies were actually obtained from Goerz, and that Konishiroku only made the final assembly of the lens and shutter units, a theory which seems quite dubious. Fujishima, p.53 of no.10. The author says that he has no knowledge of any surviving example, whereas 's book had been published a few years earlier, with a picture of a Special Pearlette. One of the main arguments for the theory is that the camera's technical level was too high for the Japanese industry of the time, but the existence of the contemporary Nifcarette A proves this wrong. (Nichidoku met some technical difficulties with the Nifcarette, and few examples of the model A were made, but the firm was arguably less experienced than Konishiroku.) An advertisement for the Special Pearlette dated 1929, in the magazine Shashin no shumi issued by the Konishiroku company, lists the following lens and shutter combinations (all the lenses were made by Rodenstock): Advertisement reproduced in Fujishima, p.53 of no.10. The same combinations are listed in Kameari, p.2 of no.11. Lewis, p.49, mentions a Prontor shutter, surely a confusion with the Pronto. * Eurynar f/6.3 lens, Pronto shutter, ; * Trinar f/6.3 lens, Ibsor shutter, ; * Trinar f/4.5 lens, Ibsor shutter, ; * Trinar f/4.5 lens, Compur shutter, . The Special Pearlette was certainly made in very small quantities. The only surviving example observed so far is pictured in . , item 1143. Its shutter is a dial-set Compur, said to give T, B, 1–250 speeds, and its lens is reported as a Trinar Anastigmat 75/4.5. Notes Bibliography * Fujishima Kōichi (藤島広一). "Supesharu Pāretto" (スペシャル・パーレット, Special Pearlette). P.53. * Kameari Hisao (亀有久雄). "Pāretto kamera no hensen" (パーレットカメラの変遷, Evolution of the Pearlette). In no.11 (May 1978). Nishinomiya: Camera Collectors News-sha. * P.49. (The camera pictured as a "Pearlette Special" is a regular Pearlette.) * P.544. * Item 1143. Category: Japanese 4x6.5 viewfinder folding Category: Konica Pearlette Category: S Category: 1929